A baby moose in Alaska last week fell into a lake and became stuck between a floatplane and a pier, but was saved from what police described as “certain death.”
According to the Associated Press, Spencer Warren, who works for Destination Alaska Adventures, was arriving at work at Beluga Lake in Homer around 6:30 a.m. Friday when he heard what he initially thought was a bird.
As he headed to the pier to prepare his seaplane for the day’s voyage, he realized the sound was coming not from a bird but from a moose calf that had become wedged between the plane’s float and the pier.
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Last week, a Homer, Alaska man and police officers rescued a moose calf from drowning after it became stranded in a lake between a floatplane and a pier. (Spencer Warren via The Associated Press)
Warren told the outlet that her first thought was, “Oh my God, where’s my mom? I know she’s nearby.”
Sure enough, the mother, with another calf, was about four feet away from the trapped calf, preventing Warren from getting any closer to the struggling calf.
The young moose kept trying to get out of the lake, but its hooves were unable to grab onto the tops of the metal floats that serve as the plane’s wheels and allow it to take off and land on the water.
“It was like a skating rink for the moose and its hooves,” Warren said of Friday’s rescue. “The moose kept slipping and sliding and couldn’t get up.”
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Warren said he then contacted his supervisor, who then contacted the Homer Police Department for help.
When officers arrived at the pier, one officer used his patrol car to hold off the mother moose while the other officer and Warren began pulling the baby moose from the water, Homer Police Lt. Ryan Browning said.
Homer Police officers assisted Spencer Warren in pulling a young moose from Beluga Lake last Friday. (Spencer Warren via The Associated Press)
Despite one of the baby moose’s legs becoming stuck on one of the plane’s floats, rescuers were able to pull the animal safely from the water.
“Thankfully, he wasn’t moving, so that made the rescue a little bit easier,” Warren said. “We just lifted him straight up and got him onto the pier.”
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Officers stood the calf on the path and watched as it was reunited with its mother.
After being rescued from the lake, the baby moose was able to be reunited with its mother, who was about four feet away. (Spencer Warren via The Associated Press)
“Anytime you can save a little creature it’s a good feeling,” Browning told The Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
